


An Empty Nest

by DolphinNeymar



Category: Hereditary (2018)
Genre: Gen, Hereditary AU, Maybe a bit of Aaron/Peter but it’s not about them, hey it could be worse, kind of a fix it fic?, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-09 02:24:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15257331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DolphinNeymar/pseuds/DolphinNeymar
Summary: Hereditary AU where the family isn’t sacrificed, but Annie goes insane due to the paranoia of demons and such. A horrible accident happens where Peter has Charlie move in to his college dorm. He is tasked with taking care of her while dealing with his own struggles.





	An Empty Nest

The first thing I noticed was that something smelled off. There was a strong heavy-set stench of mixed chemicals and a light hint of smoke. I tried to open my eyes, but they were sticky and wet with something. It finally sunk in. Paint thinner. I was clutching my little sister, both of us slathered head to toe in paint thinner, a blonde, sunken eyed ghoul looming over us holding a match. My mother. Suddenly her eyes flick to the match, and she screams, putting the match out. She too was covered in the flammable liquid. I’m crying, high pitched and pathetic, and my sister is staring with worry into my mother’s face. I wake up for a second time at the sound of my mother’s screams. 

I wake up wailing, in my college dorm room. I don’t have a roommate, but nonetheless I choke back my sobs to avoid waking someone down the hall. I hold my mouth shut with my hands, tears flowing down my cheeks and dripping onto my already wet shirt, soaked with cold sweat. At least it wasn’t paint thinner. 

I had moved away to go to college when I graduated, and as much as I loved my family, I was glad I could leave. My father was loving and kind, but ignorant of mom’s issues often, and my mother was deeply disturbed. Her father and brother had been eaten up by their separate cases of mental illness, my grandpa starving to death from psychotic depression, and her brother hanging himself due to schizophrenia. I only learned this after my mom started to get really bad. She had hallucinations often, seeing people who were dead, thinking that we were all going to be sacrificed to a demon by her mother, and even going hysterical after thinking she saw her mother’s headless body in our attic. The body was still in the grave, right where it was to begin with. I was always worried one day she’d snap, so now i’m tortured by the thoughts of our relationship, a rancid failure of a bond between mother and son. She was to me as grandma was to her, someone who was manipulative but didn’t understand that due to instability.

I loved her, but there is one person in that house I still love more. Charlie. My little sister. She is forced to live with my parents still, as my dad thinks that she will grow up fine around him and mom. The thing is that she doesn’t even feel safe enough to sleep in the house. She sleeps in her treehouse, a large wooden structure constructed around 20 feet off the ground, like her own personal birds nest. She keeps most of the things she cares about in there with her, in a shoebox on the floor. I feel bad for her, and I wish she could be here. 

My fingers curl thinking about Charlie. I miss her, especially since we grew up together. You know what? I’m going to do something I haven’t done in what seems like forever. I’m going to visit. My stomach twists at the thought of facing my mother (who wasn’t really herself at the moment), and facing Charlie, who I haven’t seen in a long time. But I couldn’t go any longer with light knowing she was safe, loved, and comforted in her own home. 

I pick up my phone from the side table of my bed, and dial my dad. He answers the phone with a tone of worry. 

“Peter?” my stomach twists. “Hey dad..”

He asks how I am. I respond with “i’m okay.” 

I’m not okay.

“I think i’m going to visit you and Charlie today okay?” I say, slightly questioning the want for my presence at the house. “And what about your mother?”

“Her too.” I say, flatly. I don’t really want to see her. 

“Okay. We will be waiting to see you son. I’m sure Charlie will be excited.” 

“I hope so.” I say. 

I hang up after a somewhat awkward silence. Dad and I used to be very close until I moved out. He thought by moving away I was in a way leaving them as a family. But for my health I needed to be rid of that place. And now I was going back, on a somber winter day such as this one. I threw on my parka and some gloves, and stepped out of my dorm. The hall was a depressing brown and dull green, and void of any people. I take the elevator downstairs. The grey snow alights on my shoulders as I step outside, melting as soon as it touches the fabric of my parka. The parking lot is near empty as well. It is a Friday afternoon, and almost everyone is out with their friends or to dinner or something. I unlock the door of the green SUV, which my dad had given to me when I graduated. I still had to pay for the insurance, but I had never been in any accidents and got somewhat good grades. So it wasn’t all bad. 

I drove along the highway, the barren landscape covered in the slush and slurry as far as the horizons, the only thing blocking my view being the occasional utility pole. It’s calming in a way, and I can feel my breathing relax and the knot in my stomach unwind. It feels nice, cruising along the barren roads. It feels like freedom and escape. 

I pull into the driveway of my family’s house and park the car. A few deep breaths leave my lungs as I find the courage to get out of the car and step up to the door. With my fists clenched, I knock almost delicately on the door. I hear nothing. I knock again and hear screaming. I smell something off. Someone else must’ve heard the screaming too because I see Charlie’s head peek out of the bottom of the treehouse.

“Peter?”

My breathing is fast and hard. I get out my phone and dial 911. I hear the entangled screaming of two voices.

I open the door.

I smell smoke, burnt hair, and something cooking. One of the voices stops screaming. There is a thump on the floor in the living room.   
The phone answers, I slam the door shut.

“911 what is your emergency?”

I manage to spit out something about a fire, and my home address. They say that they are coming right away. Charlie starts coming down from the treehouse, and when she climbs down I hold her close to me. I don’t let her near the door. She clucks. I almost heave at the smell coming from the house. 

The police arrive, and the fire is put out. They drag my mother out, she’s screaming and biting. I don’t see my dad. To be honest I don’t think I will.   
They pull out a body on a stretcher, and I hold my breath. I can tell that he’s dead without looking. I could smell the death on it from miles away, like rancid burnt meat, piss, and shit. I cover Charlie’s eyes. She grips my parka and turns her head into it. She cries. I’ve never seen her cry.

The next thing I know, we are in a police car driving down those same barren roads. The voices of the officers sound like they are coming from another dimension. Drowned out and intelligible, like my sobs. I’m covered with a bright orange blanket, matching Charlie’s sweatshirt. Charlie nuzzles into my sleeve, and I hold her close, my hands stroking her hair. She clucks. 

I cluck back. 

She rests her head on my shoulder, and we fall asleep together in the back of the police car on the cold leather, dreaming in tandem.

**Author's Note:**

> Really loved the movie, so I decided to make this! Enjoy!


End file.
